Press leader writer

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PRESS COMMENT: We can't wait to see the new Roman 'Jorvik'

IN the mid 1970s, archaeologists digging beneath Coppergate began to unearth wonders. They were rather down-to-earth wonders - textiles, leather shoes preserved in the saturated soil, elaborately worked bone combs, and the like. But they transformed our understanding of the Vikings.

PRESS COMMENT: Hands off Askham Bog

IMAGINE a developer wanting to build a new housing estate next to York Minster - in Dean’s Park, say, or Duncombe Place. There would be outrage, right? Well, building a new estate next to Askham Bog would, in its way, be just as much of a desecration. And before you get on your high horse and accuse us of exaggerating - it wasn’t us who said that. It was Sir David Attenborough.

PRESS COMMENT: Curtain's falling on a true panto legend

FORGET Brexit. There’s a much more painful parting on the way. York’s “grand old dame” of panto, Berwick Kaler, is calling it a day. Once this year’s panto is out of the way, he will be hanging up his dame’s wig and corset for good.

PRESS COMMENT: A fitting legacy for little Tommy

LITTLE Tommy McKellar only lived for 11 days. He appeared fit and well when he was born at York Hospital on January 22, 2015. But he had an undiagnosed heart condition in which his arteries were connected to the wrong parts of his heart. His mum Natasha Pye raised the alarm when she noticed he had cold feet, his lips were blue and he was always short of breath.

PRESS COMMENT: Welcome to Yorkshire, Channel 4

BRITAIN is a nation that is oddly unbalanced. The vast majority of the country’s resources, wealth and opportunities are concentrated in a single capital city, London, that is geographically in the extreme south east and yet which dwarfs every other part of the nation.

PRESS COMMENT: Let's all back this plan to make homeless people less invisible

IN one way, the homeless people who sleep rough or beg on York’s streets are very visible. They can be seen huddled in blankets and sleeping bags on street corners and in empty shop doorways. In another way, however, they are invisible. When was the last time you stopped to notice the person behind the label ‘homeless’, or to ask them about their life?

PRESS COMMENT: Let doctors have final say on new medicine for Matilda

LIFE hasn’t been easy for little Matilda Jamieson. The three-year-old has a rare condition known as Type 3 spinal muscular atrophy (SMA3). It is a condition which can cause breathing and swallowing difficulties, twitching and shaking muscles, bone and joint problems, and difficulty walking.